SMR Fuel/Coolant Interface Patent Snapshot 2026
The SMR fuel/coolant interface patent corpus is exceptionally small and highly concentrated, with Battelle Energy Alliance and General Electric together accounting for the entirety of the top-ranked filers. Filing activity was limited to 2017–2018, with no recorded filings in subsequent years, indicating either a very early-stage or dormant niche that has not yet attracted broad industry participation.
Battelle Energy Alliance dominates an extremely concentrated, early-stage niche
Battelle Energy Alliance LLC holds the leading position in this space, ranking first by patent records, followed by General Electric Co. These two applicants together represent the full scope of the top-ranked filers in this topic.
The top five filers collectively account for all of the ranked applicants visible in this query’ combined total — a level of concentration that signals this niche has not yet attracted a broad competitive field. The gap between the two ranked entities is notable but the absolute corpus size limits strong conclusions.
| # | Applicant | Patent records | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Battelle Energy Alliance LLC | 4 | |
| 2 | General Electric Company | 3 |
Battelle Energy Alliance’s dominance reflects its role as the managing contractor for Idaho National Laboratory, giving it a structural advantage in advanced reactor fuel research. General Electric’s presence reinforces the involvement of an established commercial reactor vendor, but neither player has sustained a filing programme beyond 2018.
The corpus covers a small number of patent families; the most recent filing years should be interpreted with caution given standard patent publication lag of 18–24 months, though the extended gap since 2018 is unlikely to be fully explained by lag alone.
Filing activity peaked in 2017–2018 and has been dormant since; nuclear reactor IPC classes dominate
The two charts below show the annual filing pattern over the past decade and the IPC technology class breakdown, together revealing both the temporal concentration of activity and the narrow technical scope of the corpus.
Annual filing trend
All recorded filings fall in 2017 and 2018, with two records in each year and none in any subsequent year through 2026. While publication lag can suppress very recent counts, the multi-year absence of filings from 2019 onward is consistent with a dormant or paused research programme rather than a lag effect alone.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
G21C (Nuclear reactors) accounts for the large majority of technology records, confirming the corpus is tightly scoped to reactor-level fuel and coolant system design. G21D (Nuclear power plants) and H01J (Electron and discharge tubes) each appear once, representing peripheral or incidental classification rather than substantive adjacent activity.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Modular nuclear reactor for a land-based power pla…
A self-contained modular nuclear reactor which can be prefabricated at a factory location, nuclear-certified at the factory, transported to a field location for final assembly and connection to a large-scale electric-power generating facility. The modular reactor includes a prefabricated nuclear heat supply module and a plurality of shell segments which can… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Modular nuclear reactor for a land-based power pla… | 128 |
| 2 | Modular nuclear reactors, fuel structures, and rel… | 64 |
| 3 | Modular nuclear reactors including fuel elements a… | 9 |
| 4 | Modular nuclear reactor for a land-based power pla… | 9 |
| 5 | Modular nuclear reactor for a land-based power pla… | 3 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
Assignee snapshot from the current evidence set
The applicants below are visible in this query result. Because the evidence set is relatively small, read this section as a directional snapshot rather than a full competitive ranking.
Battelle Energy Alliance LLC
Battelle Energy Alliance LLC leads with 4 patent records, focused on G21C 3 (fuel element and assembly design) and touching G21C 15 (coolant circulation) and G21D 7 (plant operation). This profile reflects Idaho National Laboratory’s emphasis on fuel system engineering at the component level. No applicant momentum data is available for the period in evidence, consistent with the filing gap since 2018.
patent records: 4General Electric Co
General Electric Co holds 3 patent records, with IPC coverage spanning G21C 1 (reactor type/design), G21C 13 (fuel element structural aspects), and G21C 15 (coolant systems) — a broader sub-class spread than Battelle’s portfolio, suggesting a system-level rather than component-level orientation. As with Battelle, no recent filing momentum is evidenced beyond 2018.
patent records: 3Frequently asked questions
The current evidence contains 4 patent families in scope for the SMR fuel/coolant interface topic, making this a very small and specialised corpus.
Battelle Energy Alliance LLC leads with 4 patent records, followed by General Electric Co with 3 patent records. These are the only two applicants in the ranked corpus.
All recorded filing activity falls in 2017 and 2018, with 2 records in each year. No filings are recorded from 2019 onward in the current evidence.
The United States leads in jurisdiction-level records, followed by Europe (EPO) and WIPO (PCT), which each have equal representation. No filings are recorded in other jurisdictions such as South Korea, Japan, or China based on current evidence.
G21C (Nuclear reactors) accounts for the visible share of technology records. G21D (Nuclear power plants) and H01J (Electron and discharge tubes) each appear once as peripheral classifications.
No co-applicant filings are recorded in the current evidence for the SMR fuel/coolant interface topic. The two active filers — Battelle Energy Alliance and General Electric — appear to have filed independently.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from PatSnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
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